Strong business contracts can solidify your business’s stability and growth. But regardless of how well negotiated those contracts are, issues can arise that lead to allegations of breach. When you’ve been harmed by the other party’s breach of contract, you should try to resolve the issue informally and take legal action when negotiations fail. But what about when you’ve been accused of failing to uphold your end of the bargain?
In these circumstances, you have to know how to effectively defend yourself. After all, if you’re found to be in breach, then your business’s reputation can take a hit, and your financial stability can be rocked. It can also negatively affect your ability to secure future contracts, thereby leaving you in a difficult spot in the marketplace. Therefore, once allegations of breach start to fly, you need to start developing a strong defense.
How can you effectively defend yourself against allegations of breach?
Although it can be incredibly stressful to deal with a breach of contract case, you might have several defense options available to you. Let’s look at some of them here so that you know how you can aggressively fight back against the allegations that have been levied against you:
- Fraudulent misrepresentation: Fraudulent misrepresentation is common in business dealings. Here, one side either intentionally or with reckless disregard for the truth misrepresents or outright lies about a fact that’s crucial to your acceptance of the contract’s terms. So, if you relied on the misrepresentation to your detriment, then you’ll likely be successful in defending yourself against allegations of breach.
- Bad faith: The other party can’t act in bad faith and then expect to prevail on a breach of contract claim. For example, if the other party withholds a shipment of goods to you to try to strong arm you into providing additional compensation that’s outside the contractual arrangement, then you likely won’t be found to be in breach if you refuse to pay for those withheld goods.
- Lack of clarity: Not all unclear terms will lead to an excusable breach of contract, but if the terms of the contract are too indefinite to interpret and enforce, then a court probably won’t find that you’re in breach for failing to abide by them.
- Mutual mistake: For a contract to be legally binding, there has to be a meeting of the minds, meaning that you and the other party must agree on all aspects of the contract. If you and the other party make a mistaken assumption upon which the contract rests, though, then it can’t be said that there’s been a true meeting of the minds. In these instances, you’ll likely be able to rescind the contract before any finding of breach is issued.
- Waiver: If the other party failed to enforce the contract against your prior actions that technically violated the contract, then they can’t come back way later and try to argue that you’ve breached the contract since they’ve acquiesced to the breaching behavior occurring.
Don’t let a breach of contract case derail your business
A breach of contract case can have a significant impact on your business. That’s why you have to navigate it with care and zealous advocacy. If you don’t, then the outcome could lead to significant financial and reputational harm. Don’t let that happen. Gather the evidence and craft the legal strategy needed to protect your interests.